I'm a bit different in this case. To me, Fall is the time of year for starting over. Maybe it's my love of school and learning. (Yes, I'm that much of a nerd, lol.) The start of each new year promised new adventured in the books and the halls. When I started college, I looked forward to the start of each year wondering what I would learn, and how much money I would waste on what I already knew. New clothes, new supplies, new shoes, new haircut... everything seemed to be fresh and crisp like the air.
I am going back to school, though I'm not starting my journey to my Masters this fall, it will be this winter. However, there is much preparation being made now and it is causing a huge amount of excitement, so much so that I might as well be doing it now! I am finally on my last steps to the doors that hold my dream future behind them. What I've always wanted to be when I grew up. It's taken me 38 years to get there, but truth be told, I kinda needed these last few years to grow up and realize that I am ready for this life. And what a life changing experience it is going to be.
I am undertaking a Master's of Religious History. I will be studying all world religions and learning about how they came to be, how they are different as well as how they are the same. What makes people follow so devotedly one religion and not be sure of their salvation, while someone else can half-a&$ their's and seem perfectly content and at peace with themselves that they are doing all they need to be. After the Masters, I will be following into a PhD, focusing on the effects of Religion to society. How people can be best friends with the king one day and not fit to spit on the next because they do not wish to go along with the latest, greatest ideas of the king.
I cannot express to you how excited I am at the potential for all the things I will learn. I'm sure there will be many "I never knew that!"'s and "Now that makes sense"'s along the way. I will never be dissuaded from my Christian beliefs. That will NOT happen. I am too firmly grounded in them. I can kinda see coming, however, new information that may tweak those beliefs. I feel that I will be called in to question whether this or that has been right or wrong. As a strong believer in God and His plans, I cannot believe that He did not put me on this journey. Maybe I will find that my beliefs are where they need to be, maybe I will be making some changes. Either way, where I end up at the end of this journey will be exactly where God wants me, that I am sure of.
My husband has made the decision to join my church and as such, we will both be going to weekly classes to learn about why we're there, to learn about this decision I made in the past and he is making now, and to learn about our relationship with God in the process. At his first class, I was still pretty sick so I stayed home. A few days later, we were talking about the class and he said something that took me by surprise. He said that over the last few years of his life, he's never really felt that something was missing, he wasn't really looking for anything. But when he went in and sat down, he felt that what was missing was found and he felt like he was home. He's now opened more and more to talking about religion and its history, and the history of the Bible as well. With this now coming into play, I'm sure my studies will make for some amazing conversation and bind our marriage even more secure. Again, I can't imagine that God would want it any other way. After all, He did bring us two unlikely people together. =D
The season is new and everything is a changin'. The leaves are turning colors and burning brightly, much like my spirit and soul. The old will fall away to make room for the new, much like my old habits will fall away to make room for my new found belief in myself and my abilities. The earth may lie dormant for a couple of months, much like I will for a couple of years while I live in libraries and in front of my computer. But when everything fades away and the spring season is upon us, I will blossom into that time of my life standing tall and proud of who I have discovered along the way, just like that tree that started from a seed that fell to the earth in the fall.
